LED Skin business idea

Inhabitat:
While it may seem like tattoos are the norm now, no one has ink like
this. A team from the University of Illinois led by John Rogers has
devised a method to actually install LED lights under the skin. The
research, published today in Nature Materials,
saw the team develop flexible arrays 2.5 ?m thick and 100 x 100 ?m
square which are currently smaller than any commercially available
array.

In their research, the team printed circuits "directly onto a rigid
glass substrate and then transferred them to an inexpensive
biocompatible polymer called poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) to create a
mesh-like array of LEDs and photodetectors.”

In short, the university team has allowed LEDs to be placed under the
skin while allowing for stretching and twisting by as much as 75
percent. As the whole substrate is encased in thin silicon rubber, the
‘LED tattoo’ is also waterproof. The uses are numerous. As well as
becoming the latest in tattoo evolution, sub dermal illumination could
also aid in the monitoring of wounds, spectroscopy, colour-coding robots
and photodynamic drug therapy.

Rogers said of his team’s research that commercializing the
technology was "incredibly appealing” and he couldn’t wait to see the
impact it has